Benjamin Pollak Eliminated in 3rd Place ($3,500,000)
Hand #181: Benjamin Pollak moved all in for 35.2 million on the button and Dan Ott moved all in from the small blind for 45.8 million. Scott Blumstein was in the big blind and asked for a count. After a few short seconds, he called. The crowd went wild as the chip leader held the best hand in this epic three-way all in.
Benjamin Pollak: 
Dan Ott: 
Scott Blumstein: 
Pollak and Ott were all in, with Pollak being the first player at risk and well behind. Ott was the second player at risk and was very live against Blumstein's ace-high.
The flop came 
and the rail erupted as Ott took the lead with a pair of kings. Pollak picked up an open-ended straight draw, and Blumstein still had outs with a gut-shot straight draw to possibly win the entire thing.
The turn was the 
, and the river was the 
, giving Ott more than a double-up and sending Pollak out in third place, collecting an impressive payout worth $3.5 million.
Scott Blumstein and Dan Ott are guaranteed $4,700,000, and will battle heads up for $8,150,000 when play resumes.
PokerNews caught up with Pollak after his elimination. The Frenchman expressed his disappointment but expects that to subside once his emotions calm.
"I guess in a few days I��ll look back and think 'yeah, that was the Main Event that was an insane run.' Over 7,000 players to finish third is insane."
Pollak also explained his thoughts on his final hand of the tournament.
"My shove was standard, I think, with my stack of 15 big blinds. Dan is pretty short too. They can fold a lot of hands here. I was surprised that Dan decided to shove king-nine off suit. I thought that was really bad because at best he has 60 percent equity. Scott��s ace-queen he has to call. Flop was amazing as well �� king-jack-three with two diamonds. The turn and river didn��t help though.
"It should be an amazing heads up especially with Dan having chips now. Should be fun to watch."
Have a look at his entire interview here:
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
232,575,000
-52,595,000
|
-52,595,000 |
|
||
|
128,000,000
81,800,000
|
81,800,000 |
|
Busted | |